Homecumming

That night, the sky split open.

Clouds gathered in banks, black and furious, to unleash torrential hell upon the Earth. Rain poured down in thick sheets, each droplet carrying enough speed to sting on contact.

Any lights that hoped to pierce the darkness, it murdered. Half the city's electricity went with the storm. The rest strained, flickering desperately in and out of existence, like a drowning man breaching the water's surface until it pulled him back down.

Few meteorlogical events matched its power in all of human history. Nothing, certainly, had ever been so brazen to terrorize the citizens of Canterlot City. Near the coast they'd encountered harsh weather, but the closest to this had been half its strength and dozens of years ago.

It wasn't, though. A storm of similar power had rolled through just one year past.

Streets had flooded. Houses were lost. It took weeks to repair the damage.

It could have been months.

Fortunately, seven women from the outskirts had pitched in as volunteers. They were no ordinary women, however. The shortest of them dwarfed the tallest man. The weakest of them outshone the strongest. No one matched their beauty, or possessed their strange and magical powers.

Some people had taken to worship, praising them as gods and divine harbringers of a new human era. This, in spite of their less human characteristics. For a time, some of these women attempted to push back against the notion, but it was a pointless endeavor. The cultists always returned, and recently had formed a proper, legal church. There was nothing any of the women could do now to stop them, and it seemed that church attendance grew every day.

The rest of the city didn't know what to make of them. Most showed their respect, although not grovelling before them as devoted supplicants.

It was hard not to admire them. Empathy, kindness, loyalty. Generosity, laughter, honesty. Magic. Strength. Power. All these and more they gave to the community. They would accept things given to them, but never asked, never expected.

A few despised them. The opposite of the cultists, they viewed the women as demonic, evil, supernatural forces introduced to this world to destroy it. Look around you, they'd say. Ever since they showed up, things have been wrong. Wrong weather, wrong plants, wrong animals.

At best, they said, those creatures belonged somewhere else. Some planet else. At worst, drastic measures had to be taken. To remove a cancer, you needed fire.

Some, though... Some knew the truth. Some had known these women before their transformation. Knew them as extraordinary highschool girls, not divine or demonic otherworldly entities.

And some knew the only way to get answers was to ask them directly.

Trudging through the cold, the rain, she wished that forecasts worked anymore. Oh yes, they did most of the time, but not when it was important. Not when the wrath of God hammered down against the whole damn county.

She wouldn't have gone out if she'd known. At least, she'd have thrown on more than a skirt and hoodie.

But it had been a calm evening. Moist springtime air. Chirping crickets. Twinkling stars, which came out at night now no matter the light pollution. She'd had no reason to suspect the sky would split apart.

It did, though. Too far away from anywhere else to seek shelter. Too close to her destination to quit. If she got there before dying of hypothermia, she'd be able to rest.

The ground squished wet beneath her boots. She didn't so much hear as feel it. The roar of thunder, the crack of lightning, and deafening white noise of rain made it difficult to hear her own thoughts let alone anything else.

She'd only been to Sweet Apple Acres once or twice, a long time ago. Almost a decade. After everything that happened then and since, highschool seemed forever away. So close she could reach out, almost touch it, but no more than that.

She remembered it well, though. Remembered them well. She'd only really been friends with one, but the girl was unforgettable.

Sunset Shimmer. Somehow, she'd just gotten more astonishing with time.

Time, and whatever happened to her.

She wondered if it was slow, like hers, or fast. Either way, Sunset would - should - have some kind of answer.

Passing under the forest of apple trees, she kept her guard close. Hoodie pulled up to protect her face, she glanced this way and that with quick, fertive movements. She'd heard a couple things - odd things, weird things - about nature these days. A peculiar news report here, a couple social media posts there. Stories about wolves with glowing eyes made from wood, giant legged serpents with multiple heads, blue flowers that changed entire aspects of your body.

Whether any of it was real, she couldn't say. Some posts got taken down after one day or quicker. Others stayed up indefinitely.

She stopped. Her heart paused with her. She thought she heard something...

Growl.

She wipped her head in the sound's direction. Definitely heard it that time, no mistaking it.

Keeping an eye to her left, she walked a little faster. Maybe she hadn't heard a growl. The rain was too loud, loud enough she could imagine herself hearing things inside it.

It was late. It was dark. Stormy. She was paranoid, too, after reading so many posts about terrifying and unreal wildlife encounters. She had to relax, it was all in her-

Growl.

-head.

She froze. Her limbs locked up, like rusted sockets. To her left, from the dark span between the trees, two eyes opened.

Glowing. Angry. Hungry.

Bright green eyes.

She didn't scream. She was too scared to, and her body wasn't responding in any case. All she could manage was stare ahead, praying tonight wasn't her last.

The eyes shifted forward. Slowly it crept from the darkness, growling low and loud the whole while.

Its snout and paws appeared first. A snout with razor sharp teeth, eager to rip and tear her flesh. Paws with dagger-like nails, to rake her skin and pin her down.

But none of it was flesh and bone. Neither fur nor hide. Nothing about that wolf was natural.

Unless, she supposed, you counted the thing being made of timber as being 'natural'.

In full view, it charged. She screamed, and finally her feet unlocked from the ground.

She might slip, but it didn't matter. Her boots pounded the sodden, muddy earth. Several times, she nearly tripped on overgrown roots.

But she couldn't stop to make a slow, thoughtful getaway. She had to run. It was right behind her. That thing was right behind her.

She heard it barking. She heard it snapping its jaws, heard the harsh clack of teeth as long as fingers and sharp as knives.

FUck fuck fuck fuck. It was getting closer. She was gonna die. It was getting closer and she was going to-

She turned around, and offensive instinct took over. It took all her strength and focus, but a bright, glowing pink aura summoned, then shot from her outstretched palm. It careened into the wolf's cheek, and it yipped as itss right ear and a chunk of bark skull got turned to splinters.

"Haha! Take that, you dumb dog." She grinned despite herself, dusting off her hands. To whatever god she didn't believe in, she hoped there was enough left in her for another round. "That is why you never mess with the-"

It leapt right at her, teeth narrowly avoiding her face. She screamed and tumbled backwards, turning on her heel to resume the scape.

Next time, she reflected, maybe don't taunt the huge magical tree wolf standing literally four feet in front of you.

She'd never been a particularly humble person, though.

Didn't matter right now. She just had to get away. Get out from the damn trees. Find somewhere safe.

There! She saw it. Not far ahead, through the orchard, the darkness let up. Once she was there and could actually see something, she'd have better luck finding a path.

Closer, closer, closer. Her boots and heart beat together, fast and heavy. Almost, almost, almost there.

The wolf leapt out. She skidded to a halt, but the momentum and slickness of the ground carried her forwards.

She barreled into the thing full body, making it give a startled yelp. Her temporary satisfaction was quickly drowned out by the threat of immediate danger, and she used the same momentum to summersault off its prone form.

Thank god for gymnastics.

Landing on the tree line's threshhold, she tossed an errant gaze back. Her eyes widened as she saw it hadn't been the original wolf to leap in front of her, but a second. The fallen timberwolf had gotten to its feet, and begun running with the other.

"Oh fuck this."

She broke through the orchard, not bothering to look back again. Fortune favored her, and circling a hill she saw the path she'd been praying for, and the home - estate, really - that it led to.

It fascinated her. Past midnight in a howling tempest, with an ocean of trees to her back. A dirt-packed road just wide enough to squeeze a couple cars in, leading down to a single home - estate, really - on the countryside. Were it not for the building's upkeep and unconventional architecture, the scene could've been ripped right from the reel of a horror film.

The thought passed by as fast as it appeared. The wolfs had lagged behind her, but she heard them coming. She didn't have time to linger.

As her own bootprints joined the many sets that had traveled along the path, her heart raced. She expected one of the creatures to flank her, pin her down, or jump in front of her any second. The expectation only grew the closer the house came. She barely cared about the chilling cold, her soaked clothing, the sting of icy rain against her face. She couldn't afford to.

In the rush, her hoodie whipped back in the wind, exposing her face. She'd pull it up later.

When she did at last reach those mosaic tile steps, she flung herself forward. Tripping on the final step she pitched, slamming into the front door. The sound of running paws and slavering barks kept coming. She battered the door with her fists, rattling its very frame.

"Help! Let me in! Please! It's-"

She threw a fertive glance the opposite way. The growling, the barking, continued, but the running had abated. The timberwolves she saw had stopped, a few dozen feet from the house. Their withering, supernatural glare pierced the rainy misty dark, but they didn't dare take a step forward. Instead, they stalked back and forth, watching her with drooling fanged maws.

A cocky grin could not help but make itself known. Stupid animals. She was in the clear.

She turned around, intent on knocking once more, before remembering to pull the hoodie back over her face. She couldn't risk being identified yet. Plus, it would make for an extra dramatic reveal when Sunset saw her.

After some minutes of knocking, calling out, and waiting, she stepped back and stood. Hands stuffed in her hoodie pocket, it was up to Sunset now to answer the door.

Would she even remember? It wasn't like they'd gotten off to a good start there, back at CHS. It had been seven years now, and so much had happened. College, all this magic stuff. She didn't want to believe Sunset and her partners were responsible but... could they be?

The door clicked, interrupting her thoughts. Her eyes locked first to the turning knob, then the frame as it opened.

Revealing Sunset in her full, towering glory.

It was the first time she'd seen the woman this close. Far away on the streets and in grocery stores sure, but right in front of her? Right in front of her, she was... gorgeous? Terrifying? Hot? Didn't help she could see the woman's heavy baby bump, and the prominent bulge in her hot pink pajama pants.

Her jaw fell to the floor, words fumbled and spilling out haphazard from her working jaw. Sunset, with a stunned expression of her own, tilted her head.

"Trixie?"

Trixie smiled. This was her moment.

Gripping the rim of the hoodie, she whooshed it back. Silver-blue locks now wet and shining poured down her scalp, olive skin coated in dew. Half the rain had frozen to little ice crystals by now.

Trixie, however, imagined Sunset wasn't paying any mind to that particular detail.

Not when she had azure equine ears, and a half-formed stump of a horn.